The directors of Northern Rock received more than £30m in salaries, bonuses and share-based incentive schemes over the past five years.

The pay packages soared as the mortgage bank's profits - powered by its unique business model, reliant on wholesale funding - nearly doubled.

Nearly a third of the £30m went to chief executive Adam Applegarth, now at the centre of criticism. This week a leading institutional investor pointed to the lender's "aggressive and lavish remuneration policy" as an indication of the "clout" full-time executive directors may have wielded over the non-executive, independent directors. The investor questioned whether "the non-executives exercised proper oversight over the business model".

Since 2002 Mr Applegarth's basic salary has risen from £425,000 to £760,000. From 2002 to 2006 he received £5.2m in salary, benefits and bonuses and £2.8m in share awards. In January he cashed in a new tranche of shares awarded under Northern Rock's long term incentive plan (LTIP), raising another £1.6m. The shares were sold at £11.98 each - near their peak - compared with last night's 194p

His deputy, David Baker, received salary and bonuses of £3.4m over the same period, boosted by share awards worth £2.4m. Mr Baker, whose basic salary is more than £10,000 a week, made £1.2m in January selling shares from the new LTIP award.

Bob Bennett, the bank's former finance director, who retired this year, made £5.4m in salary, bonuses and share awards between 2002 and 2006 and generated another £1.1m from the bank's LTIP scheme a few weeks before he stood down. He is now entitled to a pension of £300,000 a year.

The group's non-executives, led by chairman Matt Ridley, received £1.8m for monitoring the company and its strategy between 2002 and 2006.

More than £770,000 of that went to Mr Ridley, whose profile during the current crisis has been so low that analysts and investors have dubbed him "the invisible man". Mr Ridley, a journalist, author and genetics expert, joined the board in 1994, when it was a building society. He is heir to Viscount Ridley, who was also once chairman of the Northern Rock. Last year Mr Ridley attended 14 formal meetings connected with his duties and was paid £300,000

Other non-executives include Nichola Pease, the multimillionaire chief executive of investment management group JO Hambro, former NatWest chief Sir Derek Wanless and Sir Ian Gibson, chairman of Trinity Mirror. They attend up to 25 formal meetings a year and over the past five years have each been paid more than £200,000.